Schrandt-Prouty touches others' lives
By By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 07/22/2010 9:19 AM
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NASHUA, Iowa —It's the people Mary Schrandt-Prouty will miss now that she has retired from Extension.
"I'll miss the relationships with people," she said. "I've worked with staff who have become really good friends."
She took an early retirement package and retired July 1.
Schrandt-Prouty started working for Kansas State University Extension in August 1976 as a home economist. She grew up on a dairy farm near Decorah and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in family environment. While in Kansas, she received a master's degree in family life education.
In August 1990 she came back to Iowa to be Extension home economist in Winneshiek and Howard counties. When Extension reorganized in 1992 she became county Extension education director in Chickasaw County.
"It used to be that every county had an ag agent, a home economist and a 4-H and youth worker, and there was a small group of specialists at an area office," Schrandt-Prouty said. "In 1992 that changed.."
Schrandt-Prouty became area director for northeast Iowa in 2004. Her office was in Cedar Falls, then Waterloo. She has been housed at the Borlaug Learning Center at the Northeast Research Farm at Nashua for the past year.
A reorganization in 2009 eliminated area offices and Schrandt-Prouty's job. Since October she has been interim assistant director of ag and natural resources programming for Extension. Paul Brown, who had been in that position took a job in Alabama.
Jeannie Tibbitts, who worked with Schrandt-Prouty as an administrative assistant for five years, said anyone who had the opportunity to meet Schrandt-Prouty couldn't help but be touched by her kindness and compassion.
"I especially saw this first-hand during the Extension reorganization in 2009," said Tibbitts, who now manages the Borlaug Learning Center. "Mary let the northeast area staff know that she was available around the clock if anyone needed to talk. Her cell phone bill doubled if not tripled during the transition."
Tibbitts could tell it took a toll, but Schrandt-Prouty never complained.
"I remember asking Mary if she was going to apply for a regional Extension education director position," Tibbitts said. "She told me, no, that she would not take a position that one of her reporting staff members could qualify for."
Tibbitts said Schrandt-Prouty helped her in extraordinary ways.
"I would not be here if it wasn't for her," she said.